Month: December 2012

Frankly, I think the fact that I could buy Christmas decorations before Halloween was over (and the stores were already out of Halloween decor a week before the holiday) stores like Michael’s were opening at 4 pm on Thanksgiving day to start your Christmas shopping, and all of the commercials on the radio that were encouraging me to take out a holiday loan to afford gifts is just to much over the top!

I think the last straw was this week though when I was reading the paper at the diner and saw under the list of affordable gift ideas to give your kids teachers a coffee cup (good affordable idea) filled with a $50 coffee card! What! When did it become the norm to spend $60 on a teacher Christmas gift? What ever happened to a small gift made by the child? A tin of homemade cookies or fudge? Who has that much money for a teacher gift? And for all the teachers? That is insane!

What ever happened to having the Christmas you can afford? One that won’t put you in to debt? What happened to saving through the year for the holidays? Making gifts if you could not afford to buy them? Giving gifts that mean something and took some time to pick out, wrap up, and some thought instead of throwing gift cards at everyone? Including your significant others?

I don’t know whats happened to the rest of the country, but in our house we are keeping Christmas real. We are not taking out loans for gifts, or maxing out our (non-existent) credit cards. We are making some gifts and buying others, We will not be giving a single person a gift card or a pile of cash to “go and buy there own gift”. Teachers will be getting gifts of baked goodness, the postman will most likely be getting the same box of fudge we have made him every year, and grandparents will get something homemade from the kids. Yes, we will buy our parents gifts as well as each other and the little people, but with in reason and with in our budget. And we are making sure we are doing plenty of other things through the season, the little things that money can’t buy that make the season memorable and make it feel like Christmas; Driving around to see the Christmas lights up on everyone’s houses, wrapping gifts for each other and placing them under the tree,Visiting Santa in the town square, Standing in the cold to watch the annual Christmas parade, going to make Cookies with the grandma, decorating gingerbread houses and snuggling up on the sofa at night as a family watching all the Christmas movies we can find on Netflix and TV, knowing that my mom will fly in for the holidays to share them with us, that We will go to the Tall Man’s parents house on Christmas eve and wake up Christmas morning to presents from Santa Claus, Coffee and Cocoa, and Cinnamon rolls for breakfast.

Now that is how we do Christmas in our house. Just like the Tall Man and I did as kids with our families. And in my mind, this is how Christmas should be…